Labor & Employment Law

CLUW Looks Out for Men?s Health

By Mike Hall

The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), which has long promoted preventive health care programs for women, wants to make sure that men know about programs available to them.

In an e-mail to the group’s e-activists, CLUW says:

Because women are often the health gatekeepers of the family, [we] are urging e-activists to help the men in our lives (especially men over 40) learn which preventive screening tests they need to get and when to get them.

CLUW is helping promote the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) men’s preventive health care campaign. As part of Men’s Health Care Week (June 13-19) and coinciding with Father’s Day, AHRQ and the Ad Council launched a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs).

Studies show that men are 24 percent less likely than women to have visited the doctor within the past year?and men are about 30 percent more likely than women to be hospitalized for preventable conditions such as congestive heart failure and complications from diabetes.

The PSAs encourage men to visit AHRQ’s Healthy Men website?click here?which provides the recommended ages for preventive testing (as well as a list of tests), a quiz designed to test your knowledge of preventive health care, tips for talking with your doctor, a glossary of consumer health terms and links to online resources where you can find more medical information.

To help get this vital information out, CLUW is asking activists to make sure their local unions, co-workers and family members know about and visit the Healthy Men’s site.

You also can send a Father’s Day e-card with links to vital preventive care information. Click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 17, 2010 (boomark / email).